West Springfield’s Morgan Peabody collected her 100th career hit in the Terriers’ extra-inning win over Holyoke on Friday afternoon, 5-4.
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4/25 - 12:00 PM Softball Final West Springfield High School 5 Holyoke High School 4
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Peabody reached the mark in the third, with the game tied 1-1, leading off the inning after popping out in the infield to open the game.
“I tended to be really eager for it, but then I just took a step back and realized like, ‘OK, I (will) have more at bats in the game’,” Peabody said. “I need to just wait for the pitch that I know that I can hit.”
After getting ahead in the count 2-0, the senior fouled off a pitch and a swinging strike two call, evening the count. Expecting the next pitch to be low and away, Peabody held her nerve -- and took ball three.
“One thing that my tournament coach always says is that I always pull the ball and I never try taking it opposite if it’s an outside pitch,” Peabody said. “I had seen the outside pitch coming in this moment, and I just thought back to when my coach was telling me, ‘You have to take that outside pitch outside’ - and so that’s exactly what I did in the moment.
“... (My) nerves were still engulfing my whole body when I was up to at the plate because I knew that this was such a big moment for me and I was so tense up at the plate.”
In spite of the nerves, she fouled off the next two pitches before smacking a fly ball to right field for a triple.
Jordyn Rossi drove her in with a sac fly to center field, giving the visitors a slim lead in the game.
“Ever since I first started playing softball, I’ve always seen people in high school joining the 100-hit club,” Peabody said. “Throughout (my career) I’ve really tried working hard to (reach this) milestone.
“I went from seeing my sister, (Hailey) in her years, her growth and development and it just really made me want to achieve this goal and it means so much to me that I (achieved) this goal and it really, truly shows how good of a player I am."
The two sides traded single-run frames from the fourth inning onwards, with the Purple Knights fighting off the loss with a game-tying RBI single from Kylie Blaha to drive in the runner from second and sending the game into extra innings.
The Terriers did not waste any time in the eighth, leading off with Sarah Cieboter earning her third walk of the game. After advancing to third base on a groundout, Kendall Burque drove in the the go-ahead run. Ella Signet closed the Purple Knights out in the bottom half without too much trouble, snapping the Terriers’ two-game skid.
West Springfield (4-6) will play its next game on Monday, Apr. 28 at 4 p.m. against No. 10 Agawam.
This is the first time since 2022 that the Terriers have won four of their first 10 games, Morgan’s first season with the Terriers as a freshman along her sister, Hailey, who graduated later that spring.
West Side has struggled mightily in the last two seasons, with a combined 6-34 record in that time. As a Div. II program in the Valley League, the Terriers regularly face high-level competition like Westfield and Hampshire.
Peabody has worked tirelessly on and off the field, leading the rebuilding efforts of a program that is seeking its first winning season since 2018.
“You can do anything when you put the time in it in the practice like, as long as you’re constantly trying to work hard (and) putting in 100% effort,” Peabody said.
“(My teammates) grow from seeing me play because every time I’m on the field. I’m constantly diving, constantly putting in effort, always being vocal and throughout this season we’ve seen a big improvement from where we started to where we are now.”
She also noted how the younger girls can learn simply by observing and learning from how the older athletes like herself go about failure.
“They might not think that they’re the best (but) they can always accomplish something,” Peabody said. “I’ve always expressed that during practice you can’t get down on yourself if you miss a ball, you have to get back up and get the next one. You have to continuously strike - if you just fail there and your mindset goes down, then you can’t (get it back). There’s nothing after that, you’re just fully shut down.
“When I (got out) trying to get my 100th hit... when I came back in the dugout, I was physically upset. ‘I should have got that, I should have done this differently’, but (then) they saw the way I kicked myself back up - and that’s one important lesson that the girls have learned throughout the years is picking yourself back up, even when it’s hard.”
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